


Gotcha

by Turn_of_the_Sonic_Screw



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-08
Updated: 2014-01-08
Packaged: 2018-01-07 22:55:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1125371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Turn_of_the_Sonic_Screw/pseuds/Turn_of_the_Sonic_Screw
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What are Amy and the Doctor thinking right before they reboot the universe?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gotcha

**Author's Note:**

> Set during The Big Bang; spoilers for all of Series 5

They say a picture is worth a thousand words; sometimes a word is worth a thousand years. Give or take; for all that he is a Time Lord, sometimes the simple things like birthdays slip through the cracks. 

This time the word is “Gotcha!” How many times in how many ways has he used that word? Not quite as fun to say as Fantastic, or as carefree as Geronimo, but plenty versatile. Winning a friendly competition with River (gotcha! 3 games to 2), bluffing his way out of a Dalek spaceship (gotcha! Just a jammy dodger), rescuing Martha (gotcha! Won't let you get sucked into the sun this time), or joking with Rose (gotcha! As if we wouldn't explore the toxic, laser-crab-infested sulfur mines!). Really, sometimes his whole life felt like one long string of surprises and reversals, a parade of gotcha moments no matter what order you view them in. 

But right here (the end of the universe), right now (strapped into the Pandorica), gotcha means so much more to one Amelia Pond, who remembers saving millions of lives, a star-whale, and the soul of a Time Lord wearing nothing but her nightie and a thin layer of whale-sick. It means so much more than simply “Be safe; I have you” or “Just kidding” or “Surprise!” It means “I know you, maybe even better than you know yourself. What it means to be Scottish in England, a kissogram in Leadworth. What it means to long for the little girl you locked away.” It means “You'll remember me when I'm gone. Maybe not Rory. Maybe not your parents. But me, your raggedy doctor, your imaginary friend who turned out to be real and swept you away.” It means “I know, that even when you've got the family you only dreamed of, the loving husband you deserve, even then, on your wedding day, you'll know something is missing, that the moment isn't quite perfect.” It means “I know you'll remember me, conjure me like a vagabond spirit. And I'll be there, and we'll dance.” 

And maybe, it means “If I'm wrong, if Amelia Pond is all grown up and gone forever and can't be bothered with one last childhood fancy...if that world is real, then maybe I don't want to live in it, and I'll leave her to be happy with her parents and Rory and Leadworth and lots of little Ponds yet to come.”

But it doesn't mean “Goodbye.” Not now and not ever.


End file.
